Lightning flashes. Thunder booms and rain patters on the roof. It’s all about ambience here in ViViD, of course. You gotta set the mood!
Welcome to the Pleasurable Super Youthful Caring Hospital Stage, PSYCHward for short. It works, shut up. It’s a stage created for your well-being, health and happiness. Be careful, though. The first step you take in the dilapidated asylum carries you right into a puddle.
Look down, and the puddle is red.
Ah.
Of course it’s blood.
It’s only going to get even more fun from here.
 Good Day. I Am The New Introducer For ViViD Levels. Mosley? Who's That?
Anyway, Please Have Fun And Remember To Be Safe. Safety Is Our First Priority At CERES.
Thank you. Enjoy.
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PHASE I [ 4 00 ] The first room any people familiar with the ViViD song and dance routine will find is one that is...wonderfully full of body bags. Body bags everywhere -- on the floor, on the shelves, uncomfortably tossed over the back of a chair...and each body bag has a helpful tag.
Handy.
Of course, within each bag is a newcomer; they won’t be able to escape the body bags until someone else unzips them. They’re dressed in little more than hospital gowns, toe tags still attached to bare feet.
Welcome to ViViD! Enjoy your stay.
Of course, there has to be an element of surprise to it. Some body bags contain living, breathing newcomers, yes. But the others?
These contain corpses. The toe tag on them indicates a loved one or someone important to you -- or someone you hate beyond all else. You open the bag, and there is their face, achingly familiar and frozen in death...but blink and suddenly they’re the corpse of a nondescript stranger.
PHASE II [ 600 ] Step out of that room and now it’s the asylum proper. Lights flicker. It’s dark, but it’s still more than clear to anyone with ears -- something’s stalking everyone in this place.
The shadow flickers on the wall, the lights go out -- you turn a corner and there it is, jumping out at you with an unearthly cackle --
A puppet.
It hangs there limply, utterly harmless.
All around the facility, these harmless puppets lurk. In lockers, behind doors, in dark halls…
But they’re all literally inanimate and harmless. Whose dumb idea was that?
PHASE III [ 1000 ] But slowly, the atmosphere changes. Go in deeper, and the sounds around deaden until there’s nothing left but the dark all around and the sound of your own breathing. And yet, irrevocably you know, whether as an aspect of the level or something else entirely --
Something is actually hunting you now.
It makes no noise. It can’t be seen. But it’s stalking, and it’s on the hunt.
To make matters worse, now the asylum seems to have become a proper maze, with dead ends everywhere, and practically no light to see them by.
And the only other souls you’ll see are the other people stuck in the maze -- but there’s something not quite right about them either. You can see...bits of their code, lurking under the surface of their skin, and as you watch, it’s being corrupted, bit by bit, the longer they’re in the dark.
If you look down, it’s happening to you too.
Better hurry.
There’s only one way out.
PHASE IV [ 1400 ] And then you step through a doorway into light.
You escaped the maze, but this is an asylum, and you’re about to see why. There are rows upon rows of cages of aliens. They cry out and reach out through the bars with webbed or clawed hands or tentacles, begging for release.
Let them out, or don’t -- the exit to Cerealia proper is right there at the end of this room, inviting and safe.
But if you do elect to let them out, the entire room suddenly goes silent.
And there, in that cage you opened, there is no longer an alien, but instead a doll. And it’s watching you. Stay any longer, and the doll with start to move, reaching -- and if it touched you, suddenly you’re the one locked away behind bars.
On the plus side, when you take the exit to Cerealia, it’ll deposit you in the Pleasure District, where massagebots will reach for you to try to drag you in for a sensual massage.
Welcome!
PENALTY [ ???? ] You were caught in the maze.
It’s hard to say even now what it was that caught you, but now you’re strapped down to an operating table, and there’s a flat-faced doctor standing above you.
The restraints can’t be broken.
There’s a prick of a needle, and you fall unconscious -- and that’s probably a mercy. When you wake up, you’ll be back in the asylum somewhere, but missing a sense -- the one from your character’s application will be gone. A character who is sight will have been blinded, for instance, and a character who is touch will feel nothing. This will last until they log out of ViViD and get into Cerealia.
[ Remember to apply proper warnings on threads with sensitive or inappropriate material and do let a mod know if your thread careens off into maiming or canoodling so we can lock the log. ] |
Welcome to Cerealia's July intro log! For your convenience, we have compiled the characters' arrival experience here, and should you have any questions, feel free to ask them here! You can also check the FAQ for more general inquiries. Should this event log hit Captcha, there is an all-purpose overflow here. Thank you! |
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Once they're safe in hiding, Jaune leans against a wall and lets himself sink to the ground. Tears replaced with uncertainty of what happens next for them. Nothing could have prepared him for this day or what's to come. ]
I'm sorry.
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She hesitates for a moment and then sits down next to him.
For the first time in what feels like ages, he wins a smile from her. Little more than a sliver, and rueful besides - but still a smile. ]
We've got a lot to talk about, don't we?
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[ Which is understandable. Jaune himself avoided talking about this for weeks, and even lost his temper at close friends like Shiho. If Pyrrha wanted to magnet slam him against the wall again, he would feel like he deserved it. ]
I spent the last three months thinking we'll never have that time again, and now... [ He trails off, unsure where he was even going with that thought. Nothing makes sense right now. ]
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His timeline is so out of sync with hers now, Pyrrha doesn't feel right admitting that her defeat at Cinder's hands is only mere hours away. It will take time, she hadn't been lying about that. Time for her to figure out what words to use, time for him to be ready to listen.
Still, three months. It doesn't make her feel any less trivially stupid, especially after throwing herself headlong into her own mortality. ]
... [ Well, nothing for it. They may not be strictly alone in this building but no one else is bothering them, and they're out of immediate danger. ] Jaune, you understand that when you go back to Remnant, I won't be going with you, right?
[ It takes all her will not to shrink back as soon as those words are out. Please don't yell at her again... ]
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His shoulders sink, and he calmly replies. ]
... Yes.
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... Oh. - That's good.
[ Good that he's aware, she means. All at once, energy seems to leave her and she's leaning a little more against the wall. This place is actually quite nice, she notes with a dispassion bordering on clinical. It's calming, more than anything, creating an atmosphere that serves as a soothing balm to their injured moods.
Maybe it's that ease that prompts her to admit, ] I'm not sure what to do now. [ In this exact moment with him, yes. But also on this day, in this week, this month... in the fragments of her life left to her. ]
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Jaune doesn't mention this. It's too cruel to offer Pyrrha false hope when Jaune himself has yet to be 100% convinced, even if he's practically letting Ruby believe in fairy tales too. ]
Can we just sit here for a while? Pretend that time has stopped outside? You... don't even have to talk with me if it's hard right now.
[ Although he really wants to, but Pyrrha does look more worn out than he is. ]
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[ She is worn out, and still knocked more than a little off her axis by all this - and rather hungry too, if we're being completely honest. Setting all that aside, however, nothing sounds better than just sitting with him and letting the whole world go away for a little while. And, although she knows she ought not to, Pyrrha ends up sliding both of her hands around his elbow, almost hugging herself against his arm as her forehead finds a resting spot against the curve of his shoulder. The fabric of his well-worn hoodie is as soft and comfortable as she remembers it being.
For a little while, it might seem like she's taken him up on his offer to not talk. Eventually, she speaks up, and it's with a needy, childlike whimsy that the hyper aware teenage part of her will be kicking herself for later. ]
Will you talk for a little while? [ Not about any of this, but about... hm. ] I'd like to hear about your sisters.
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There's not much to say. [ Seven sisters might sound incredible to someone with less or no siblings at all, but it's what Jaune grew up with and all he knows. It's normal for him. ]
Oh! Actually, I've met someone here, a young girl who reminds me of them. One of them, anyway. It was after I came back from... from Remnant...
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She sidesteps his mention of Remnant to keep his words flowing. ]
Keep going, please.
[ Pyrrha remains unmoving against him, eyes fluttering closed as she looks far more peaceful than she has since they were reunited. ]
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[ Who happens to be more relevant than Jaune lets on. When Jaune returned from Remnant, she was the first person who for a brief moment in time made Jaune forget about his own anguish. At a time when others were asking him about his absence or reminding him of Pyrrha, here was the one person who knew nothing about her, or that Jaune was missing for three days. ]
I felt kinda lost when I came back, but... I dunno, I guess helping her reminded me of... who I am. If that makes sense. Hm. A-Anyway, she grew up without having anyone to trust. It must've been awful...
[ Jaune pauses, wondering if Pyrrha might be dozing off. ]
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This isn't any different, even if Jaune's voice is a welcome distraction. Pyrrha cracks her eyes open and peers up at him. Again, she's beckoning him to continue his story. ]
You helped her?
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[ He remembers that being friends seemed to have been a big deal to her. Not that Jaune doesn't treasure friendship, but it's something that's just as natural as breathing to him. Even strangers are friends. ]
... Hey, Pyrrha.
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[ She assumes, vaguely, that he's about to tell her his arm is asleep and prepares herself for the possibility of moving— ]
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You don't have to act like you're not scared or that you don't feel pain... at least not around me. [ It's a bit rich coming from him, but he's aware of that as well. ] We're not in Beacon anymore.
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To that, though - she's really not sure what to say. No, they're not in Beacon anymore; although she's not yet aware of it, Beacon is gone. And, with it, the happiest year of her life. And Pyrrha herself... She doesn't even know where to begin. She's worried that if she stops holding herself together for even a moment, she'll never be able to pick up the pieces.
... Her eyes open a little wider when she realises. So many of their problems had come from being unwilling - afraid, really - to communicate. The only way he'll ever understand her concerns is if she voices them. ]
What if I do stop acting, and I can't find my way back?
[ It's easier when people look to her to take care of them. It forces her to grow up, look beyond her own trials and exist in the world. The act, as he calls it, may silence her but it also gives her a measure of strength. ]
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You're not... Pumpkin Pete's mascot, or....... all those other things you did. [ lmao, he doesn't remember the rest of Pyrrha's celebrity resume. ]
You're like Ruby - like me. We try to hide our sadness for the sake of others, but it doesn't mean it's not there. And whatever you're feeling? It's... it's okay to feel it.
[ He doesn't expect her to tell him about anything, of course. The complexities of suddenly coming back to life are things that Jaune is still trying to sort out in his mind. It's enough if Pyrrha just allows herself to not be The Invincible Girl for a while, because she isn't. ]
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Pyrrha raises her head, grip on his elbow easing. ]
... Can we go home now?
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Y-Yeah, of course... whatever you need...
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And now it's over.
Calmly steadying herself to that fact, to - to all of this, Pyrrha is silent the rest of the way home. ]